Since he joined the Eagles as an unheralded fifth-round draft choice in 2005, defensive end Trent Cole has made his reputation by sacking quarterbacks. He had five his first year - while making just seven starts - but recorded eight or more in each of the next six seasons, two of which ended with Pro Bowl honors. So for Cole, this season has been baffling, because he has recorded just 11/2 sacks for the 3-4 Eagles. And the struggles aren't limited to Cole. The Eagles have recorded just nine sacks overall.

Hugh Douglas, the Eagles' most proficient pass-rusher during coach Andy Reid's first four seasons as head coach, had signed with the Jacksonville Jaguars during the 2003 free-agent period, and now the search was on for the team's next disruptive defensive end. The draft seemed like a logical place to start, so the Eagles maneuvered from the 30th overall pick to the 15th selection and grabbed Jerome McDougle from the University of Miami. Oops, that didn't work. They also took McDougle's Miami teammate Jamaal Green in the fourth round of that same draft.

A magnetic resonance imaging on Trent Cole's right ankle Saturday revealed no structural damage, the Eagles said. The defensive end is listed as day to day with a mild ankle sprain. Cole injured the ankle in the second quarter of the Eagles' 20-17 preseason win Friday night at Kansas City. He had to be carted off the field. "Well I'm good nothing serious," Cole tweeted. "Time to recover and get after Green Bay. " The Eagles will play their final preseason game Thursday against the New York Jets.

Eagles defensive end Trent Cole, a major hunting enthusiast, is snubbing a Pennsylvania sports expo because it has banned sales of certain rifles variously described as "modern sporting rifles," "tactical rifles" or "assault weapons. " Eastern Sports and Outdoor Show, scheduled for Feb. 2 to 10 in Harrisburg, bills itself as "THE Sportsman Show," and was expected to draw about 200,000 visitors and feature 1,200 exhibitors. Many sportsmen, however, seem to be upset that the show's organizers have failed to fully support the constitutional right to bear arms.

Outside linebacker Trent Cole fractured a bone in his hand against the Cowboys on Sunday night, an NFL source said Monday. It's unclear whether the Eagles veteran will need season-ending surgery. Even if he doesn't, Cole would be a long shot to play against the Washington Redskins on Saturday. Cole was unavailable for comment after the game. Eagles coach Chip Kelly said he didn't have an update on Cole at his Monday news conference. If Cole is sidelined, Brandon Graham would start at the "Predator" outside linebacker spot opposite Connor Barwin.

Playing on the defensive line for Jim Washburn required an understanding of the controversial coach who was loyal to his players and often effective in developing their pass-rushing skills. Washburn could be abrasive, and his style has come under criticism since the Eagles fired him on Monday, but respect remains. "If you're one of the guys on the D-line, we know how he is," defensive end Trent Cole said Tuesday. "So we're used to that. We're used to . . . I don't know what you call it. But we had that [close]

One of the bright spots of an otherwise gloomy Eagles season has been the rapid development of rookie defensive end Trent Cole. A fifth-round draft choice from the University of Cincinnati, Cole made his first NFL start last week against the New York Giants a memorable one, with two sacks and six tackles in the Eagles' 27-17 loss. Cole is second on the team with five sacks, all in the last three games, with two against Dallas and one against the Washington Redskins. His emergence has coincided with improved play of fellow defensive end Jevon Kearse.

When Trent Cole arrived in Philadelphia, he was a fifth-round pick recovering from two bouts of pneumonia and felt decidedly out of place in a big city hundreds of miles removed from the rural stretches of Ohio where he spent his childhood hunting. "When I first got here, I was like, 'Man, I don't know about this,' " Cole said. "I'm serious, I told 'em, 'Direct me to the woods.' " Eight years later, Cole is one of the three longest-tenured Eagles and has established himself as one of the most prolific pass rushers in the NFL. He still has a noticeable drawl - when he says "woods" it sounds as if he's using four O's, not two - but South Jersey and Philadelphia have become home.

After closing time at Club Chipper, the hot new dance spot in South Philadelphia, the patrons clear out pretty fast. They have to exit via a hallway lined with blowups of newspaper pages celebrating great moments in Eagles history - if you define Eagles history as things that happened since the NovaCare Complex opened in 2001. What is striking is how ancient that history is beginning to feel. To many of the players leaving Chip Kelly's aerobics/football class Monday, the names and faces on the walls are those of strangers.

The way Chip Kelly and Billy Davis have put it, the Eagles are going from one end of the spectrum to the other as they transition from the wide-nine, 4-3 defensive front to a two-gap 3-4. Where they stop along the scale will depend on several factors, but above all it will hinge on ex-4-3 defensive ends such as Trent Cole and Brandon Graham and their ability to adapt to becoming stand-up outside linebackers that can both pass-rush and drop into...

THE FINAL GUN had hardly sounded before the tweets began. Jeremy Maclin was campaigning to come back. Trent Cole was begging to stay. Maclin, the Eagles' best receiver since they took him in the first round in 2009, can hit the open market and cash in on a career season. Cole, ranked second on the team's all-time sack list, is due more than $35 million over the next three seasons. Maclin sounds willing to forgo free agency and, possibly, take a little less Treasury green to stay in Eagles green.

Eagles coach Chip Kelly said Monday he would like both LeSean McCoy and Jeremy Maclin to return in 2015 but conceded that there could be tough decisions ahead. "We are going to have a long, full process for this whole thing," Kelly said of roster evaluations. "But do I want LeSean back? Yeah. Do I want Jeremy back? Yeah. Is that the reality? I don't know. . . . What if someone gives us 17 first-round draft picks for LeSean? . . . We'll look at everything. " The two high-profile players face uncertain futures with the team.

Marcus Smith has a plan for his first offseason as an NFL linebacker, which is more than can be said about his first regular season as an NFL linebacker. He wants to get bigger, stronger, harder. He weighs 260 pounds now, but "I don't look it," he said. "I want to be able to look it, be faster and more explosive than I was coming into it. " Smith sat at his locker for a while Tuesday, talking about his rookie year with the Eagles. It would be kind to say he has not made much of an impact.

It would make little sense for Brandon Graham to sign a contract with the Eagles before testing free agency. The team recently reached out to Graham's agent to open negotiations, which may be the Cinderella story of the year considering how close the former defensive end-turned-linebacker thought he came to getting released or traded before the season. "It feels good, because at the end of the day I wasn't supposed to be here," Graham said this week. "I'm just happy I changed the opinion of a lot of people.

Trent Cole underwent surgery on his fractured left hand and will miss the game Saturday against the Washington Redskins, coach Chip Kelly said Wednesday. Cole had a plate inserted into his hand. His status for the Dec. 28 regular-season finale against the New York Giants remains undetermined. Brandon Graham will start in Cole's place at outside linebacker. Graham, a former first-round pick, has been a reserve for Cole and Connor Barwin throughout the season. Graham has 34 tackles and has matched a career high with 51/2 sacks this season while playing 39 percent of the defensive snaps.

BRANDON GRAHAM said yesterday he hopes talks toward a deal to keep him with the Eagles are productive, Graham confirming a CSNPhilly.com report that the team has spoken with Graham's agents about a contract to replace the 2010 rookie pact that will expire in the spring. This seemed serendipitous, given that Graham now officially is scheduled for his first start since 2012, in the wake of Trent Cole's left-hand surgery yesterday, in which a plate was inserted to heal a break. Cole is out for the Saturday game at Washington, though defensive coordinator Bill Davis has said he thinks Cole can play in the season finale at the Giants.

May 8: Eagles make Marcus Smith a surprise first-round selection with the No. 26 overall pick in the draft. April 21-June 19: Smith is introduced to outside linebacker during the Eagles' offseason program. Aug. 8: Smith plays his first preseason game against the Chicago Bears and records two tackles. He finished the preseason with eight tackles and no sacks. Sept. 7: Smith is active for the Eagles' opener against Jacksonville. He does not play. Sept. 15: Smith is inactive for a game against Indianapolis.

BRANDON GRAHAM might start this week, and no one has been cut or fired. Graham's last stint as a starter came in 2012, when Andy Reid cut Jason Babin and then fired defensive line coach Jim Washburn, freeing Graham from the bench. Graham, the team's 2010 first-round draft choice, then managed four sacks in six starts. But the following offseason brought Bill Davis and a 3-4 defense. With Connor Barwin signed to play one outside linebacker position, Graham got stuck behind Trent Cole, who currently sits second on the franchise's all-time sack list behind Reggie White.

More than seven months after the Eagles invested a first-round pick in Marcus Smith, the team still does not know what position he will play in the future. "I'm not positive right now," defensive coordinator Bill Davis said Tuesday. "I would say outside [linebacker] first, but I still think the jury's out on him. " A defensive end at Louisville, Smith was drafted as an outside linebacker, where he played during training camp and the preseason. The Eagles moved Smith to inside linebacker after Mychal Kendricks was injured in Week 2. They kept him there throughout the season before he returned to the outside on Tuesday because of Trent Cole's broken hand.